The Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU), has urged the incoming government to review selection of ministers and chief executives in the sector which will in turn resolve the challenges confronting the segment.
This was contained in a statement signed by JOHESU acting national secretary, Matthew Ajorutu, for Biobelemoye Josiah, its national chairman.
The health organisation in the statement bemoaned the healthcare sector Ministries Departments, and Agencies (MDAs),currently administered by the physicians, adding that they are rotting away.
The release reads in part: “In the current dispensation, the reality in our country is that we need far and wide-reaching reforms to generate new building blocks for sustainable development in all frontiers of our collapsing social fabrics.
“Our health sector has been progressively destroyed in the last three dispensations of leadership with special regards to ministerial appointments at the federal ministry of health since 2011 to date.
“Today, the health system in Nigeria which is rated 187th out of 191 health systems by the World Health Organisation (WHO) through the machinations of the leadership of physicians stands no chance of redemption. This would be possible if the President-elect comes up with a unique model of reforms which places a premium on change-agents who are not necessarily health workers to redress the pestiferous propensities in the heavily infested health system of our country as presently nurtured by physicians at the ministerial parastatals and other agencies of the federal ministry of health.
“In a larger bid to redress the huge ills in the health sector, the JOHESU/AHPA wishes to facilitate the reform agenda of the President-elect by proposing the reflected charter of demand to the incoming administration.”
On the other hand, JOHESU kicked against deficiencies of the University Teaching Hospital Act cap 436, laws of the federation of Nigeria, 2004. It also condemned the discriminatory salaries and wages in the health sector and imbalances in the directorate structure of the federal ministry of health.
